Category Archives: Links of the Week

Canadian developer Digital Extremes doesn’t have a great track record on etg. They were behind the 3/10 Star Trek game that everyone loved. That put me off Warframe but Digital Extremes persevered and now have a successful MMO that they had to do themselves without publisher backing (or interference). [PC Gamer]

And for the opposite story, here’s the story of how the modern incarnation of Dungeon Keeper, War for the Overworld, went from Kickstarter success to released disappointment. [Eurogamer]

Life is Strange will be getting a live-action adaptation. Square Enix is partnering with Legendary Pictures’ digital arm to produce a digital series based on the 2015 etg top game. The partnership with dj2 Entertainment, who don’t seem to have even a Wikipedia page, does worry me slightly. [Hollywood Reporter]

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney thinks that Microsoft’s push into the PC space will coincide attempts by Microsoft to sabotage Steam and destroy it as a platform. [PC World]

Yahoo bought Tumblr for about $1 billion. They’ve already written-off over 70% of that purchase as “impaired” meaning that they overvalued Tumblr’s worth. Oops. [Gizmodo]

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Blizzard is hard at work on Overwatch and they’re also working on the Nova Covert Ops expansion to StarCraft II. Neither was their planned first FPS or game featuring Nova. That would be StarCraft: Ghost. What went wrong with that? [Polygon]

Not only are superheroes dominating the box office but they’re taking charge in print as well. [Washington Post]

An interview with Christian Divine, the writer of et geekera’s Favourite Game of 2015, Life is Strange. [Only SP]

As a Canadian waiting for release, I’m already too far behind on Pokemon Go. It’s joining Clash Royale late all over again. [Vice]

But some Canadians are having fun without Pokemon Go, legally or illegally. [Uproxx]

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Scientists at UCLA now believe that the Earth is made up of two planets when another planet collided with the Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. [The Independent]

Twitch superstar Bob Ross created an estimated 30,000 paintings during his life. What happened to all of them? [Mental Floss]

Here’s something I should have done ages ago: Uninstalling the Facebook app from your Android phone saves around 20% of battery and processing power. [The Guardian]

Google is adding a new feature to its Safe Browsing tech to prevent you from clicking fake download links and play buttons. [Torrent Freak]

This search engine lets you search Simpsons screencaps, including by quote. Sadly, “pi is exactly 3” did not return any results when I tried despite the front page image being that exact scene. [Frinkiac]

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Hopefully coming soon to a home near you: WiFi 802.11ah which will give you better range and less trouble from walls for less power. [Geek.com]

We’re prone to looking at the business of gaming but what about the business of the galaxy? Would the destruction of the second Death Star had an economic impact so big that it would have crippled the galactic economy? [New York Times]

Are you on T-Mobile and watching YouTube? That’s a silly question. The EFF says that T-Mobile is throttling YouTube on their network so of course you’re not watching it. [BGR]

There were a lot of fans of Patton Oswalt’s Star Wars: Episode VII filibuster on Parks & Rec. Did any of his vision for The Force Awakens come true? [Inverse]

An Awesome Games Done Quick fundraiser is coming to a close this weekend. There’s still time to watch and donate. [AGDQ]

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In their infinite wisdom, Comcast is going to artificially limit a limitless resource. They’re implementing broadband bandwidth caps on customers. Living in Canada, I’m unfortunately familiar with that (along with lower speed, lower caps than Comcast is giving and higher prices). The biggest problem is that other companies might take Comcast up on this idea. [BGR]

Sony is working on bringing PS2 emulation to the PS4. It may have even started with the Star Wars classics pack that came with the Battlefront PS4 bundle. [Wired]

Yahtzee says what we’re all thinking: AAA games are just paint-by-numbers now. Hell, there was an element of that in today’s LOTV review. [Escapist]

YouTube says they’re going to be a bit friendlier to media creators when it comes to DMCA claims. Now about ContentID… [Kotaku]

I think I understand why the porn industry is interested in sponsoring eSports teams. One leading website (who I’m not naming solely to not further harm our Google page rank) saw their traffic tank last Tuesday when SC2: Legacy of the Void, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Fallout 4. [Venture Beat]

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In a sad follow-up to last week’s Geek Links, Star Wars superfan Daniel Fleetwood died just days after his special last wish advanced screening of The Force Awakens. [Digital Spy]

TPP analysis continues to roll in as people sift through the massive document. Apparently, it’s as bad as everyone feared. [Daily Dot]

SteamOS was designed to be a superior operating system for gamers. Analysis says not to believe the hype. And just in time for Steam Machines too. First people complain about the controllers, now this. [Ars Technica]

In a story that is spiralling out of control on Reddit, reports indicate that an EA rep “bribed” (quotations taken directly from the news story) mods of the Star Wars Battlefront subreddit to remove certain posts. [PlayStation LifeStyle]

Did you see Jamie Lee Curtis at BlizzCon? Probably not because she showed up incognito in WOW cosplay. [Kotaku]

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The government of New Zealand has released the text of the whole Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’m trying to find a big analysis of it but it’s so big that people are just writing lengthy pieces on small aspects. [New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade]

This week in good news, Disney and JJ Abrams showed an early cut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to a dying fan. [Furious Fan Boys]

Before this summer, how many people heard of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars? You may have now that Psyonix hit it big with the release of Rocket League. It wasn’t an easy road to success for the dev. [Eurogamer]

I’ve never heard of this new social network tsu.co but Facebook has. They’re banning all mentions of the new invite-only social network from their network. Shameless begging: If anyone has a way of hooking a blogger up with an invite, my email’s in the about page. [CNN Money]

Comcast threw shade at Google Fiber. Comcast’s customers quickly threw it right back at them. [BGR]

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We’re quickly approaching the 50th anniversary of Star Trek but the best that seems planned is a movie that’s in complete turmoil. Maybe a return to TV is in order for Star Trek. [Vox]

Valve unveiled their new VR headset this week (more on Steam hardware next week) but it might actually already be better than the Oculus Rift. [PC Gamer]

If you watch American TV, you’ve most certainly seen ads for mobile microtransaction bait Game of War starring model Kate Upton. I thought that the $40 million ad campaign was never going to work but the lesson seems to be that if you want to make $1 million per day with a mobile game, hire Kate Upton for your ads. [Bloomberg]

If you thought Civilization: Beyond Earth was underwhelming, you weren’t the only one. Firaxis admitted that they could have tried something more. [Gamasutra]

Were you looking forward to watching HBO Go on your PS4? Not if you’re on Comcast. They’re blocking HBO Go on PS4 and not explaining why. [Tech Dirt]